On 24 May, the Czech Republic detained Metropolitan Hilarion of the Russian Orthodox Church, who after being retired from his post as chairman of the Budapest-Hungarian diocese serves in a church in the Czech town of Karlovy Vary. This was reported on Monday morning by Hilarion’s Telegram channel, saying that “four small containers with a white-coloured substance” were found during a police inspection of his car.
Czech police on 25 May, without naming Hilarion, confirmed that the car was stopped on Sunday evening near the village of Ungosti near Prague. The reason was an anonymous report of transporting narcotic and psychotropic substances, a spokeswoman for the National Drug Control Centre told Novinky.cz.
The prosecutor’s office said that no one has been charged yet, but questioning of the two detainees is ongoing. The metropolitan’s telegram channel said his cameraman travelled with him in the car.
Hilarion denies any involvement in the possession or transport of drugs and considers the incident a “provocation”, his Telegram channel said.
The cleric’s lawyer said the circumstances of the car stop and its inspection “raise serious questions”. He noted that police officers were only interested in the contents of the boot, and the metropolitan was not allowed to be present during the inspection.
“According to the information we have, no claims were made regarding a traffic offence. It is most likely that the task was set to search this very car. The police went straight to the boot – they seemed to know in advance where to look,” said the defence lawyer.
The priest’s telegram channel says that earlier in the Czech Republic Metropolitan Hilarion and the Orthodox community in Karlovy Vary were subjected to “prolonged pressure” and that the priest himself received anonymous threats demanding that he leave his place of ministry.
Metropolitan Hilarion previously headed the Moscow Patriarchate’s External Relations Department for many years and was considered one of the closest to Patriarch Kirill. In 2022, he was reportedly sent to Hungary. After a scandal involving, among other things, allegations of harassment, Hilarion was sent to “retire”. The church of St Peter and Paul in Karlovy Vary was chosen as the place of his ministry. The resort town in the west of the Czech Republic is home to many natives of Russia and other former Soviet countries.